I was watching Hall Pass the other day and I was so damn surprised that when the main character stopped playing his game you actually hear his motorbike crash. Sure, it's a silly thing to pick up on but it still made me feel like the makers of the film were paying attention to what they were doing.

Watching people play fake games on TV. Not the actual screen, but them holding the gamepad. It's like they've just been told to mash all the buttons to make it look real...

Mini-rant aside, that was a great read :D And yeah, Spaced is one of the only things I've seen do games right.

Yeah, In the big-bang theory there is a very bad case of this. WHen they play halo it's more like they're playing some kinda rhythm game on expert rather than the otherwise subtle movements normally used in an FPS title (especially one you're good at)

On the last episode of Breaking Bad, Jessie's two best friend's were having a debate over which was better out of Left 4 Dead's "infected" (one of them did point out that they weren't really zombies) or Call of Duty's Nazi zombies. They were high, though. So...

Ruairi iliffe:Accually i'd say Spaced nailed the whole feeling of gaming perfectly, if only because Simon Pegg was accually playing the game there and then to prevent that whole mis-conception about it.

Watching people play fake games on TV. Not the actual screen, but them holding the gamepad. It's like they've just been told to mash all the buttons to make it look real...

Mini-rant aside, that was a great read :D And yeah, Spaced is one of the only things I've seen do games right.

Yeah, In the big-bang theory there is a very bad case of this. WHen they play halo it's more like they're playing some kinda rhythm game on expert rather than the otherwise subtle movements normally used in an FPS title (especially one you're good at)

There was an episode of one of the CSIs or Law and Orders where they are talking about a Grand Theft Auto type game. In the game the character grabbed a woman and then with her screaming and crying, the kicked her head into the pavement. I'm sorry but that is more depraved and psychotic than anything Grand Theft Auto ever did. Not Saints Row perhaps, but for sure GTA.

Ruairi iliffe:Accually i'd say Spaced nailed the whole feeling of gaming perfectly, if only because Simon Pegg was accually playing the game there and then to prevent that whole mis-conception about it.

Ive only seen the paint ball episode and the one where they suddenly start play shooting each other... it was legend, I really need to watch more.

This article reminds me of The Wixard. One would figure that a movie which exists as little more than a feature length Nintendo commercial would get things right and yet there's one scene where they show a character (the main character's father?) playing Zelda and claiming to be fighting Ganon. And then they show the TV screen and Link is standing in the middle of a town blatantly not fighting anything.

Anyway, the sort of sticky issue here is that there really are two sides to how gaming is portrayed. There's the larger thematic use of "videgames as evil" that pops up all the time in things like crime dramas. While these are usually pretty stupid, there's some drama to be had and they actually aren't all bad. Personally, I quite enjoyed the one episode of CSI about that dealt with the rivalries within pro gaming and esports. The second aspect is what others in the thread have mentioned where game playing characters are portrayed as button mashing shut in buffoons which, to me, is actually more inexcusable.

^^ Great article! Welcome to the Escapist. I look forward to reading more of your articles.

OT: Actually, I've always liked that episode of the X-Files. It was cheesy as hell, but it had a lot of astute observations. That's one thing I loved about that show - between Scully and Mulder, the show could discuss both sides of the issue equally.

Sinan Kubba:The geeky but well-adjusted Tim Bisley of British sitcom Spaced was regularly seen with a PlayStation controller in his hands, typically with little comment. Games were just something he liked, no big deal.

Except for the fact that when he combined Resident Evil 2 with some cheap speed he got from a couple of Scottish blokes he met in the pub he ended up punching a transvestite in the face.

(Although, admittedly that has less to do with the game and more to do with the cheap speed and Tim's reaction to Twiglets.)

As far as gaming, etc. is concerned, I'd agree with the people talking about how it looks when the actors are supposedly playing a game. It's kind of laughable how easy it is to tell when someone's faking it. I'd also like to add Shaun of the Dead to the list of films/shows that I think did it right, though I know it's basically the same crew from Spaced. I'm not entirely sure what game Shaun and Ed were playing (James Bond? First time I saw the movie, I thought it was Timesplitters, but I'm not sure why), so for all I know, it isn't the best example of how to do it right, but at the very least, it seemed like they were actually playing.

One thought that occurred to me as I was reading is what people in the future will think about these inaccuracies. I mean, fifty years down the road, will people think that the made-up jargon from The X-Files was actually common terminology? It's kind of scary to think about.

Just for once I'd like to see a TV program forget realism and just go for balls-to-the-wall jargon-busting absurdity. Watch actors spout guff like "Gamers have over one hundred words for smashing someone's face into the pavement with the top-end of a traffic light" with perfectly straight faces, and basically just take the unholy p--s out of the "crime drama" version.

^^ Great article! Welcome to the Escapist. I look forward to reading more of your articles.

OT: Actually, I've always liked that episode of the X-Files. It was cheesy as hell, but it had a lot of astute observations. That's one thing I loved about that show - between Scully and Mulder, the show could discuss both sides of the issue equally.

Watching people play fake games on TV. Not the actual screen, but them holding the gamepad. It's like they've just been told to mash all the buttons to make it look real...

Mini-rant aside, that was a great read :D And yeah, Spaced is one of the only things I've seen do games right.

Yeah, In the big-bang theory there is a very bad case of this. WHen they play halo it's more like they're playing some kinda rhythm game on expert rather than the otherwise subtle movements normally used in an FPS title (especially one you're good at)

Not to mention it has them playing Halo in the first place, a game more commonly associated with frat boys and 13-year-olds than the kind of nerds that they are, and it just kinda smacks of "this was literally the only video game the writers have even heard of." It's weird because this show is usually pretty good about straying off the beaten path in their references to geek culture and science. Heck, two of the main characters are theoretical physicists who also play video games, and I don't think I've ever heard them bring up Half-Life. That should have been a no-brainer!

One example that stayed in mind for me was in House. The camera shows House in a hospital room holding an X-Box controller. Cuddy walks in and says something like "Did you steal [the X-Box] from the pediatrics ward?" House admits to doing so as the camera cuts to Cuddy and the T.V. comes into view. He was playing Ninja Gaiden. Ninja Gaiden. In the pediatrics ward. Realy?

One thing I loved about The X-Files and it's short-lived sister show Millenium: the writer's reguarly went to great lengths to research the topics they were portraying in their episodes . . . even though it had a fictional spin on it, it was easy to discern that the subject material was properly researched before it's being conformed to the series in question.

That, IMHO, has lead to a lot of topics covered in the shows stil being relevant today, and many times being revisted by the film or movie industry. A prime example would be the film Untraceable which portrayed a killer with a grudge who used the internet to display his killings; the whole plot of the movie was nearly identicle to the older Millenium episode "Mikado," with very little difference between the two. From the protagonists motivation, to how the killings were displayed, everything was copy & pasted . . .

. . . but, yet, the material is still relevant to today's age where such a situation could concievably occur. Yet, the original plot was written in 1998 when the tech industry was still on 58k connections, and the internet was still getting off it's feet . . . back then, such actions would have been quite shocking (at least, more-so than they woiuld be today). It simply amazes me, though, that these early shows had such fore-sight regarding the tech industry . . . but again, that comes about from doing one's research.

IRL I'm an avid gamer (sadly not a profession!) and my wife is an emergency department nurse.I've finally stopped her telling me everything they do wrong wrt medicine and treatment by promising to be quiet about computers (pet hate for her: when doctors use defibrilators to bring someone back from a flatline instead of CPR).

However, I don't argue the point too much. There are some pretty cool medical things going on and it is an interesting way to ignore the ads by hearing what was portrayed incorrectly by hearing how much cooler real life in the hospital is!

How could you not have mentioned the episode of Dexter where he playss Halo 3?

On an office computer.Without a mouse.With sound effects that sound like they came from an Atari 2600.

Seriously, wtf? Also, what kind of a moron deploys a bubble shield after killing his opponent on a duel match? And who plays Duel on Rat's Nest, that maps far too big! And if you watch the scores carefully, you'll notice he actually travels back in time.

number 6 reminded me of an actaul game called "hacker" or something along that where you had to buy hardware, make your links untracable, search for files ect getting tasks via email. it was a fun game actually, and not THAT FAR OFF. ofc it was all with graphical representation that doesnt exist in reality but hey its a game.

and as the numbers one, altrough mirc was awbsolutely awful thing they used, hidden encrypted online chats are used for criminal activity, obviuosly sucesful ones are the ones the FBI doesnt even know to exist.

Watching people play fake games on TV. Not the actual screen, but them holding the gamepad. It's like they've just been told to mash all the buttons to make it look real...

This is one of the reasons I don't watch TV anymore (As stupid that reason may be).

Misrepresenting something you enjoy and devote time to is a stupid reason? I disagree :D

Yeah, I just don't get it, I mean (as wrong as they are) the shows calling them evil and violence-inducing are at least using it purposefully (not defending them!) but why do some shows just go "ohh! We should put some video-game ish thing here, even though it doesn't exist and looks like something from 2002, it'll TOTALLY make gamers gasp in awe of our brilliance!"

On the other hand, casually including real games is awesome :D (Shaun of the Dead: Timesplitters)

What no mention of Badger and Skinny Pete's excellent discussion of zombie themed video games on Breaking Bad?

Badger: OK, OK, OK, Call of Duty: World at War zombie mode. Now that's the bomb, man. Think on it, bro. They're not just zombies: they're nazi zombies.Skinny Pete: Nazi zombies...Badger: Yeah, man! SS Waffen troopers, too, which are like the baddest ass nazis of the whole nazi family!Skinny Pete: Zombies are dead, man! What difference does it make what their job was when they was living?Badger: Dude, you are so historically retarded! Nazi zombies don't wanna eat ya just 'cause they're craving the protein. They do it 'cause, they do it 'cause they hate Americans, man. Talibans. They're the Talibans of the zombie world.